Nicole Ponseca

Pansit (pronounced pan-SIT) simply means “noodle.” It’s the word that follows pansit that tells you either the type of noodle in the dish or the style of preparation. Here palabok refers to both. Pansit palabok is a luscious, buttery, bisque–like shrimp sauce tossed with white rice noodles and topped with tsitsaron, crisp-fried pork rinds. Loosely translated, palabok means “sauce,” and the original dish was made from ground shrimp heads and shells blended with annatto seeds, water, and cornstarch. I grew up with the kind that was made by opening a seasoning packet labeled “palabok.” You added water to make a gelatinous sauce that tasted mildly like shrimp. This version takes at least an hour and begins with an annatto-shrimp stock that is the foundation of the sauce. The traditional flavorings, which are sometimes referred to as sahog, include not just the pork rinds but also smoked fish, eggs, and scallions. To make the dish ultra decadent, you can add sea urchin, or hayop ng siotsin; the urchin’s rich, buttery flavor and bright orange color make the finished dish even more divine.

Filipino food is always served with condiments within easy reach, even at a street vendor where you stand and eat. These condiments let diners customize the flavor of the meal in the form of a self-mixed dipping sauce, which is generally known as sawsawan. Diners get individual bowls and use their spoons or forks to mash chiles with vinegar as they see fit, or stir together patis and calamansi, or make whatever sawsawan they prefer. Store this version—an all-purpose sweet-and-spicy vinegar—in clean mason jars or keep it in repurposed glass bottles. Note that this recipe can be adjusted as you like—try using different chiles or other spices like bay leaf.

Barbecued chicken skewers are both a backyard staple and a street food treat, and it seems like everyone has their own secret method for the marinade: It can be salty or sour, sweet, or loaded with garlic. For us the perfect barbecue sauce for chicken is made with banana ketchup, soy sauce, sugarcane vinegar, and 7UP. It’s slightly sticky when cooked and develops a nice char as the sugars in the soda and ketchup caramelize, while the dark thigh meat (a must) stays tender and juicy. Serve the skewers alone or over sinangag, with sawsawan made of diced onions, crushed garlic, black pepper, and a bit of fish sauce, soy sauce, and vinegar.

Breakfast in the Philippines is built on sinangag, or cooked rice tossed with garlic and oil. For us, the smell of sinangag cooking is better than waking up to the aroma of coffee. This recipe may garner some raised eyebrows from knowledgeable Filipino cooks because we don’t use leftover rice to make it and we don’t use a rice cooker. Instead, we cook the rice in a pot on the stove over very low heat. The rice kernels stay intact and even a bit dry—much like day-old rice—and thus they hold up to the additions of garlic chips and homemade garlic oil, which make the rice more robust and flavorful.

Torta is “omelet” and talong is “eggplant,” but this is more like an egg-battered cutlet eaten for breakfast or lunch. The eggplants are heavily charred before they’re battered with egg and panfried, making them smoky and creamy. Sometimes, ground pork or beef is added to the egg, but we often use crab (though that’s optional, too). You can serve tortang talong as a vegetable side as part of a bigger meal, or on its own with a bowl of rice alongside and some fish sauce on top. You can also make this dish if you have any leftover grilled eggplant; it would work perfectly.